Happy Ghost Lightup Card

This project is a simple and easy way to learn about circuits and switches while also being creative. I approached this project with a specific end aesthetic in mind, but you could just as easily take these same principles and get creative with how you used paper, coloring utensils, and LEDs to make a design that was unique to you.

- Adafruit Circuit Playground

- Conductive Thread

- 2 LEDs

- ThreadBoard (Learn to make your own here!)

- Paper (preferably a heavier stock, colored craft paper)

- Hot Glue

- 2 Pom Poms

- Tape

- Writing Utensil

Before we can make switches, we need to get our power and ground busses in order. I used an Adafruit Playground placed on a Threadboard as the battery and placed magnets over the 3 volt and ground ports. I then placed two respective pieces of conductive thread over the magnets and arranged the busses so that the power bus was along the outside of the ThreadBoard and the ground bus was on the inner portion of the board. I had to do some slight rearranging of these busses in order to get the switches to work, but I still kept the same general arrangement of ground being on the inside and power being on the outside.

This step is where the most creativity comes into play, so if you want to use a similar principle but make a different paper shape or LED arrangement that's totally okay! I cut out a basic ghost body, and then glued two foldable arms on the back of the card so that they would rest on the front of the card. The basic idea was to make a ghost with its arms close to its body that once opened would connect LEDs to the busses, thus closing the circuit and turning on the light.

To attach the LED to the ghost arms I first placed the LED in the desired position, making sure to have the anode and cathode facing the correct directions, and marked where the bulb was on the opposite side of the paper with a pencil. I then used an x-acto knife to make a small 'x' at this spot, which made it easy for the LED bulb to poke through. With the LED in the correct position, I used a small piece of masking tape on the underside of the bulb to hold it in place, making sure not to completely cover either node.

Now it's time to see the project come to life! You'll notice that at this point the busses had to be shifted around slightly in order to accommodate the positioning of each LED, that's totally fine and easy to do with this setup. I made sure to get the positioning for the LEDs down before placing on the pom poms, this made it easier to make adjustments as needed. It's also worth noting that the Playground has a tendency to shift around with this much adjustment happening, so if your LED suddenly doesn't seem to be working, make sure that your magnets are still over the 3 volt and ground positions!

With the busses and LEDs in position, it's now time to place the pom poms! These serve both to hide the LEDs and to act as decorations, I personally think they look like cheerleading pom poms. Make sure to place a dab of hot glue next to the LED to place the pom-pom, if you place it on the LED or too close to it you will permanently adhere the pom-pom to the LED.

Now all that's left to do is give your ghostie a little personality! I drew this face quickly and simply, but you can put as much detail as you want into it. With the finishing touches complete all that's left is to admire your final product. If this is something you want to be a more permanent fixture, I would recommend either attaching the ghost to the Playground via tape or finding a different and more transportable battery. For a fun experiment and way to learn about circuits though, this project is perfect as is!